Wanda D. Filer, MD, MBA, FAAFP, to Assume Role of President of the American Academy of Family Physicians

DENVER -- Wanda D. Filer, MD, MBA, FAAFP, a family physician in York, Pennsylvania, will assume the role of president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Wednesday, September 30. Prior to becoming president, she served three years as a director on the AAFP Board and one year as president-elect. Filer was chosen president-elect in October 2014 by the Congress of Delegates, the AAFP’s governing body. The AAFP represents 124,900 physicians and medical students nationwide.

As president of the AAFP, Filer will advocate on behalf of family physicians and patients to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system. Filer has been a practicing family physician for more than 25 years. She is the founder and president of the Strategic Health Institute in York, a health care consulting firm dedicated to building awareness of today’s health issues and the need for change. In addition, Filer is a family physician at Family First Health, a federally qualified health center in York and Adams Counties.

An active member of the AAFP since 1987, Filer has served on the AAFP Commission on Governmental Advocacy and as board liaison to the AAFP Commission on Continuing Professional Development. In addition, Filer has also served on the AAFP Foundation Board of Trustees and on the board of FamMedPAC, the AAFP’s political action committee.

Filer is a past president and an active member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians, including having served six years as the chapter’s delegate or alternate delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates.

At the state level, Filer has the distinction of having served as the first Physician General of Pennsylvania, where she acted as public health advisor to then-Governor Tom Ridge. She also has served as an ad hoc member of the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine and Pennsylvania State Board of Osteopathic Medicine. In addition, Filer is past-president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Cancer Society. She is the past chair of Vision of Hope for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, which focuses on the prevention of child sexual assault. She has served on the board of directors of York Traditions Bank since 2002. Filer also worked for 18 years as a health correspondent for WGAL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Filer earned her bachelor’s degree in family health science from Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania, and her medical degree from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia. She completed her family medicine residency at Underwood Memorial Hospital in Woodbury, New Jersey, where she also served as chief resident. Filer earned an executive MBA from Pennsylvania State University.

# # #

Founded in 1947, the American Academy of Family Physicians represents 124,900 physicians and medical students nationwide, and it is the only medical society devoted solely to primary care.

Family physicians conduct approximately one in five of the total medical office visits in the United States per year – more than any other specialty. Family physicians provide comprehensive, evidence-based, and cost-effective care dedicated to improving the health of patients, families and communities. Family medicine’s cornerstone is an ongoing and personal patient-physician relationship where the family physician serves as the hub of each patient’s integrated care team. More Americans depend on family physicians than on any other medical specialty.